Taipei Weighs TV Network Tied to China

By MARK LANDLER

Published: June 11, 2001

TAIPEI, Taiwan—
With more than a dozen all-news channels on the television dial, the last thing this compact country would seem to need is another one. Yet if Taiwan gives final approval, Phoenix Satellite Television will begin broadcasting its Chinese-language news channel here as early as July.

Phoenix would stand apart from its rivals in one crucial respect: it is a channel backed by the Chinese mainland -- the first of its kind to be licensed on an island that was occupied by the Nationalist troops of Chiang Kai-shek after they were driven off the mainland by Mao Zedong and the Communists in 1949.

Phoenix, which is based in Hong Kong but controlled by interests from the Chinese mainland, is testing a proposition: that in an era of tighter economic ties between Taiwan and China, greater China is becoming a single media market. Phoenix is run by a former People's Liberation Army soldier, Liu Chang Le, in a partnership with Rupert Murdoch's Star TV.

Because of history and legal restrictions, media companies in China and Taiwan have rarely tried to sell their wares in each other's markets. People in Taiwan and China speak the same language, but they have very different tastes in media -- molded by decades of newspapers and television programs that reflect the political imperatives of their respective regimes.

Recently, however, Phoenix jumped the legal barrier, winning preliminary government approval to distribute its channel on cable systems here. Now it hopes to leap the equally high hurdle of local taste.

''Six months ago, I would have said, 'Not a chance,' '' said Arthur Shay, a lawyer in Taipei who represents media companies. ''But with so many Taiwanese businessmen focused on China, Phoenix has a real opportunity.''

Mr. Shay said there was a hunger in Taiwan for news about the mainland. At a recent dinner party he gave in Taipei, he said his guests spent most of the evening debating which were the best restaurants and hippest bars in Shanghai. Thousands of Taiwanese are moving to China to oversee investments; they are curious about everything from politics to where they can go to meet members of the opposite sex.

''How do you reach these people?'' Mr. Shay asked. ''You give them a channel that tells them what is going on in China.''

Phoenix is not the only media company trying to erode the barriers between China and Taiwan. Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong publisher, has started a Taiwan edition of his gossipy magazine, Next.

The inaugural issue, featuring an exposé on the love life of the daughter of Taiwan's president, Chen Shui-bian, sold its entire press run of 275,000 copies in a few hours, breaking local records.

Tom.com, a Hong Kong-based Web portal, recently acquired PC Home, a Taiwan magazine publisher that it plans to expand into China. Backed by the tycoon Li Ka-shing, the company says it has ''the opportunity to create the biggest Chinese-language media company in greater China.''

Next and Tom.com are from Hong Kong, a former British colony that has direct flights to Taipei. That makes them less alien to people here than a news channel backed by Beijing, which periodically threatens to invade Taiwan.

For several years, China's state-owned television network, China Central Television, or CCTV, has been available on Taiwan's cable systems. But CCTV functions as a propaganda arm of the Communist Party, and it is watched by a small audience of mostly older viewers on the mainland.

Phoenix, by contrast, styles itself as a Chinese-language CNN. The channel seeks to cover China-related news aggressively without running afoul of the Beijing authorities.

Phoenix covered the 1999 elections in Taiwan as well as the inaugural address of President Chen. CCTV played down that exercise, hewing to the official line that Taiwan is a renegade province of China.

Even in its corporate structure, Phoenix seems to symbolize a greater China. It is based in Hong Kong and uses producers from there. Its financial backing and political ties are mainland Chinese. Yet several of its on-air personalities, including its star anchor Wu Xiaoli, are from Taiwan.

For all that, some experts here are skeptical that Phoenix will prosper in Taiwan's market. Videoland, a cable-television distributor owned by the powerful Koos Group, has agreed to promote the channel to cable operators here, and eventually carry it on its affiliated cable system.

But Videoland's president, C. Y. Chen, says Phoenix runs the risk of being perceived as little more than a privately owned CCTV. To persuade skeptics, he said, it will have to prove it is not just a better-packaged propaganda machine.

''We see things differently here,'' Mr. Chen said. ''If they want to win eyeballs, they need to dedicate resources to Taiwan. They need to produce shows locally, with our point of view and perspective.''

Phoenix declined to comment on its plans, saying it did not want to speak before it received formal approval from Taipei.

People close to the channel said it did not plan to expand its editorial presence in Taiwan; it has only a few people here. The company's main concession will be to drop commercials from the mainland of China, which are banned in Taiwan, from its satellite feed.

Analysts say Phoenix's caution reflects a belief that Taiwan will not be a huge source of revenue. But the company needs to tap markets outside China, because advertising revenue in its home market has slowed. And just getting on the dial here might be valuable as a way to increase its political muscle in Beijing.

''Part of Phoenix's job is to disseminate China's views abroad,'' said Andrew K. Collier, an analyst at Bear, Stearns in Hong Kong. ''If they can do that in Taiwan, it will really help them with the Chinese leadership.''

Photos: Liu Chang Le, above, a former soldier in the People's Liberation Army, runs Phoenix Satellite Television, which is based in Hong Kong but controlled by interests in China. Phoenix is seeking final approval of a license to broadcast news about China in Taiwan. Also trying to break down the barriers between China and Taiwan is Jimmy Lai, left, a Hong Kong publisher, who has started a Taiwan edition of his gossip magazine, Next. (Richard Jones/Sinopix for The New York Times); (David Hartung for The New York Times)(pg. C12)